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Republican loathing for Hillary Clinton used to be viewed as her Achilles' heel.

But Tuesday night in Philadelphia, she wore Republican hate as a badge of honor, fending off her Democratic rivals' sharpest attacks yet by casting herself as a kind of partisan warrior queen.

Barack Obama, pressed for weeks by his donors and by the media to take on Clinton more directly, came out swinging against her, moving from uncertainty to a more confident criticism.

She parried an early blow from him, an accusation that she is too close to President Bush and his party on Iran.

"I don’t think the Republicans got the message that I’m voting and sounding like them," she told the Illinois senator.

"If you watched their debate last week, I seemed to be the topic of great conversation and consternation – for a reason."

The heart of Clinton’s case was that if Republicans hate her, she must be doing something right.

"The Republicans, in their constant obsession with me, they obviously think I am communicating effectively," she said later in the debate.

But Obama came back sharper.

"Part of the reason Republicans are obsessed with you, Hillary, is I think that’s a fight they’re very comfortable having," he responded, adding that "what we don’t need is another eight years of bickering."

Skillful attacks

John Edwards kept up the pressure most skillfully on Clinton, putting his courtroom skills to use to build a case, at times mockingly, against the New York senator.

After almost two hours of largely fruitless sparring with Clinton, accusing her of “double-talk,” Edwards drove his point home when she refused to say whether she supports New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s plan to give drivers’ licenses to illegal immigrants.

“Do I think this is the best thing for any governor to do? No," Clinton said.

"But do I understand the sense of real desperation of trying to get a handle on this? Remember, in New York, we want to know who is in New York, we want people to come out of the shadows."

Edwards pounced.

“Unless I missed something, Sen. Clinton said two different things in the course of two minutes,” he said.

Obama said he supports the plan. An Edwards aide, Mark Kornblau, said after the debate that Edwards also supports issuing licenses to illegal immigrants, which is the most controversial element of Spitzer's plan.

Keeping cool

Clinton, positioned in the middle of the stage with a row of men in suits on each side, turned to her left to listen to Edwards and her right to hear Obama.

She largely responded calmly, diminishing the policy differences between the candidates.

When Edwards tried to draw a difference between his plan to fight terror in the Middle East and hers to run combat missions against Al Qaeda in Iraq, she dismissed the gap as “semantic.”

"You know what I’m hearing here — I’m hearing this holier-than-thou attitude toward Sen. Clinton ... close to personal attacks that we don’t need," he said. "I think it’s important that we save the ammunition for the Republicans."

The debate later took a turn to the weird, with Rep. Dennis Kucinich confirming that he had seen an unidentified flying object in the company of the actress and spiritualist Shirley MacLaine.

(Immediately after the debate, Richardson offered more ammunition to UFO fanciers in an MSNBC interview: "The federal government has not come clean" on UFOs, he said.

Later, he seemed to backtrack. "I don't believe there are UFOs but the government has not handled this well over the years.")

The UFO exchange also gave Obama, finally fully relaxed, his clearest line of the night.

"What I know is there's life here on Earth, and we're not attending to life here on Earth," he said.

Readers' Comments (100)

Of course Hillary tries to spin this huge weakness to her advantage: she's a Clinton after all. But no amount of spin changes the fact that she is easily the least electable Democrat of the major candidates. The Republicans have succeeded against her: she has 50% negatives and she got destroyed on healthcare. Sure, she's won in the very blue state of New York, but that's like Bush winning in the very red state of Texas. It's not quite the same thing as a national stage. There is no doubt that Hillary remains a very marginal candidate at best. Even she has admitted that the best she can do in any national election is win the same states Kerry did plus hope to pick off a few more to put her over the top. She could never unite this country, and under her we'd just have 4 more years of bitter division and no great progress on any front.

With Clinton holding a huge lead among Democrats in national opinion polls ahead of the November 2008 election, rivals Barack Obama, John Edwards, Chris Dodd, Bill Richardson and Joseph Biden all took turns aiming shots at the New York senator in hopes of bringing her back to the pack. .

Who do you think won the Philadelphia NBC - MSNBC News Democratic Presidential Debate?

For 10 hours all MSNBC said was Obama needs to do this and that, he is 30 points down in the polls, etc. It was nauseating FOR 10 HOURS. After the debate wrap up on MSNBC.... not one comment was about Obama not getting it done. Thats a win in my book. He can finally get that media monkey of not being direct with Hillary off his back. I am voting for Obama but I have to say that I thought Edwards did great. Having said that, Edwards doing great is also a win for Obama because Edwards cant win the nomination and Obama can. Hillary got owned and I think people will start to see what garbage we are in for if she somehow wins this.

Obama looked regal but forceful and energetic. Just the debate he needed. He showed substance on the issues and mettle in his argumentation. I am so proud to support this man. He showed what I and his other millions of supporters knew he had (testicular fortitude) - let's hope the rest of America gets the message.

He sounded and mostly looked like a man who has finally gotten something off his chest (namely, Hillary). I had never seen him so relaxed in the debate. I say relaxed because he was fired up but comfortable. He criticized her on specific issues and was neither gratuitous nor mean.

Needless to say, Hillary had a disastrous night. Having people call you what you are (a liar and flip-flopper, essentially) has to hurt. Anyone who says that Hillary won this debate is not biased, but contemptible or delusional. It was about time that someone called Hillary on the carpet for her dishonesty and lack of leadership on the issues. The media refused to do so, so the other candidates had to.

Now Hillary can't blame all of her woes on the republicans. She can only say that everyone is against her - and sound paranoid.

So, to summarize and just as the rest of the nation's voters already know (though it's useful to have more confirmation of this), the Democratic candidates for the Presidency all agree with giving state driver's licenses to illegal aliens in our nation.

For all Obama's good sense, he shoots himself in the foot with agreeing with that. As to Hillary, Richardson, Kucinich and Edwards, somewhere in their minds they have rejected the fact that they're allegedly representing citizens of the United States of America, and confused when they ask U.S. voters to trust them in upholding and defending our Constitution. Obviously, they're assuming a lot of people are easily fooled.

When a highly skilled courtroom lawyer spends two hours after you, you know you are doing something right ! When the opposition political party makes you a pun ching bag at their debate, you are doing something right ! When I can write whatever comes to my head about Senator Clinton and hear such hate in response, she is doing something right. Let's borrow a phrase from media advertising, " GO GIRL !" I also loved Representative Kucinich's line about moving to Roswell !

Barack Obama indeed hit a homerun tonight. He was very smart in allowing Edwards to aggressively attack Hillary as he himself gave well thought out and precise presidential answers to the American people while at the same time not letting Hillary off the hook on any of her vague responses. The American people are tired of lies and disguise. Bush has done enough of that for eight longgg years. No More! No Mas! Senator Obama is clearly the more capable of the candidates to lead this country and it's people. Great job Senator!

Obama was masterful tonight and presidential in tone, authority and demeanor. He has long been the emotional favorite in this race and is now demonstrating the tough political and strategic qualities that are the characteristics of a true leader. He uses humor, historical/cultural references and his extensive understanding of the issues to communicate his vision for our country while connecting with everyday Americans. There is reason to hope once again. Barack Obama is the one.

Some pople didn't watch the debate. So they may be listening to Ben Smith's desperate spin. But here's a real review from a real voter: WOW! This guy Barack Obama kicked *ss tonight. I loved the Double-faced Mitt Romney mask jab. LOL! One interesting observation is that Obama was nailing Hillary with absolute calm, without a single sign of anger on his face. That's what you get when you stumble and give Barack Oabma an opening. Hillary Clinton's vulnerabilities were exposed! She was nervous and scared to sh*t when asked tough questions. She rambled, shook her head, drank water, etc. Richardson self-destroyed when he suggested the candidates whould be holding hands and singing kumbaya. Kucinich made himself look like a clown with the UFO answer. Great performances from Biden and Dodd. Nice team-work going on there between John Edwards and Barack Obama. Great strategy to not attack each other. Sign of an Obama/Edwards ticket, maybe?

You guys seriously thought Obama did well? I was watching,too, and he came across to me as hesitant and slow to respond. Edwards was far more forceful and energetic, and Chris Dodd had some strong moments. Biden showed why I will probably cast my vote for either him or Obama in the primary (the guy probably has the most sophisticated understanding of foreign affairs among the candidates).

Really, I did not think Obama came off that well. Like I said, his attacks seemed kind of . . . pathetic, compared to the bite contained by Edwards.

On a sidenote, the Chris Matthews' post debate show was kind of amusing for two reasons. First, Matthews and two of the other people with him kept trying to get Biden to comment on the "horserace" side of politics, but he kept steering clear of that in favor of talking policy. Second, there was a group of Ron Paul supporters who had two rather large banners being held up directly behind Matthews.

I watched the debate and I have to say Barack Obama was the clear winner. I loved that he nailed Hillary when she tried to act like "Oh the National Archives just moves at their regular slow pace" when asked about why her husband said they couldn't release certain of her records till 2012. Having volunteered at the National Archives before, a project with a high volume of paper takes awhile to prepare for public viewing, but is do-able. He is absolutely right that if she's touting her "experience" as being First Lady, she should release these records since that's what America is lacking right now-trust and transparency and openness in the government. How do you expect the American people to trust you if you say you won't release certain of your records that are supposed to be public? When she responded that it's not her decision to make whether or not to release these records-it's absolutely her decision. They are her records that aren't being released. She was First Lady, after all. I also loved hearing her steal Obama's "turn the page" line. I heard him say it first way back in April at the California State Democratic Convention. She also completely lost it on that drivers license question at the end and was yelling at Tim Russert because he wouldn't let her get away with trying to have it both ways (like when she said if it were Cubs vs. Yankees in the World Series she'd have to alternate sides). Why would we want a president who'd have to "alternate sides"? Obama is the real deal-he has always said he will tell the truth, and even when he disagress will always always listen to what the American people have to say. It's about time we had someone who is willing to get past all the idiotic name-calling and unwillingness to compromise (on all sides) to just roll up his sleeves and get down to working to solve the huge problems that face America today.

You guys seriously thought Obama did well? I was watching,too, and he came across to me as hesitant and slow to respond.

Hahaha...no, I thought Obama did well CONSIDERING THE STANDARDS upon which "well" or "good" or even "passable" can be levied (as in, "consider the messenger" or perhaps, "consider the company"). You can evaluate a turnip as being delightful and even "exceptionally satisfying" if and when everything in the environment from whence a turnip is found is rough soil and beetles.

Can't speak for anyone else here, not trying to, and Heaven knows I don't identify with most stated previously.

Excellent job exposing her, Dems!!! I have to admit, it was entertaining to watch them slam her. She also showed that she is still running against Bush and Cheney. They are not running, Hillary. Get with the times and realize that you can run against "non-combatants." The Republican nominee will be your opponent. All of the candidates have already distanced themselves from Bush. Whoever the nominee is, it won't be Bush.

I have to disagree with the article. You say that Hillary was calm throughout the debate and deflected the attacks well. Obama came at her in skillful and clever ways and she got caught in her shrill and confused doublespeak. He hit her with facts and Obama was enjoying himself. Hillary was exposed and she knew that. She had cracks in her 'inevitable' aura and she looked desperate. I remember in one debate when everyone went after Obama and he calmly deflected it off with humor and good answers. clinton got shook. It was a fun debate and she finally was forced to face tough questions and not allowed to just do the usual clinton duck and dodge.

That debate was ridiculous. It was nothing but a complete pile on on Hillary. Since Edwards, Obama and Dodd all had the same strategy, none of them stood out. Obama only jumped in after Edwards attacked her, and he spoke such nonsense that it didn't matter anyways. Him and Edwards looked a little too excited to point the finger at her (literally) for not being clear on an answer. Did anyone notice that Obama's answer to the same immigration question was muddled as well? Aside from attacking Hillary, maybe they should put something in their strategies that would actually make someone want to vote for them, rather than just not voting for Hillary. I think attacking her in this manner makes people leaning towards her more likely to stick with her. That's how it looks to me.

Hillary's dumfounded when she gets knocked off her Mark Penn talking points.Of course she plays the victim card whenever possible..It's nice to see so many Dems giving Obama serious consideration.I really believe he would reach out to all sides.